When buying a house, aside from looking at the usual factors such as style, the number of rooms, and bathrooms, another factor that you may wish to consider is the external Feng Shui. After all, it is the external landforms that inform the flow and type of through the property. Any good Feng Shui practitioner worth their salt will have a look at the surrounding landforms, the Luan Tou, before making a decision on a purchase. After all, you don’t want to buy a place only to find out that it is steeped in Sha Qi, which won’t only make living there hard, but will also complicate efforts to resell that unfortunate piece of property.
The first thing to note is that there are two types of Qi, the positive and prosperous “Sheng Qi” and the negative and stagnant “Sha Qi”. Of course, you’ll want your home to be steeped in the positive energy, and, so you’ll have to make note of exactly what landforms are surrounding your home. If a place is too open or spacious, the Qi cannot collect, and any obstruction will cause the Qi to be blocked.
Before you even start house hunting however, accept the fact that no one place will be 100% perfect. Purchasing any pre-built property means having to make some compromises since you do not have the chance to have any the say in where the entrance is located or how the land is shaped. Even if you buy the land, and design and build the house from the ground up, the land itself may be restricted by location and its surroundings.
So, how do you begin? First, start with a map. Use a basic compass and a map of the location to find out exactly where the 8 cardinal directions are. It helps you see where landforms such as mountains and rivers are, and helps you identify man-made features such as roads, pylons and large buildings that may influence the Qi of the area. If it helps, drive around the neighborhood to get a better sense of where everything is located in relation to your potential home. Find out what direction the property is facing.
Next, look for mountains and rivers in the area, since these are the two most important landforms in Luan Tou Feng Shui. Mountains, as Yin features known in the ancient Feng Shui texts as Dragons, produce Qi, while rivers and lakes, are their Yang counterparts that collect the Qi. Any completely flat land without these will have weak or stagnant Qi.
After that, you’ll want to look at the house itself. Check the shape of the land, if it is square, rectangular or irregular. The shape of your land can influence the Qi that moves through your home. You’ll also want to know what features there are, such as slopes, ponds and drains that are located within the land itself. Be wary of any house that has had a “Water Dragon” feature created by the house, since these structures create Sha Qi instead of collecting Qi. Remember that roads and highways are modern representations of rivers and can therefore also influence the flow of Qi around the property.
Once you have done that, check the direction of the property’s Main Door, and from this focal point, examine the vicinity of the place. Sharp and pointed perspectives and angles in nearby houses and structures generate Sha Qi, where wind hits the property at high speeds and does not allow it to collect any Qi. If you are buying a pre-built property, you may also want to check some of its features such as the shape of the roof and the shape of the building itself. Though most house plans nowadays are roughly square in shape, some developers may feel more “creative” and go for L or U-shaped houses. These shapes are not entirely ideal for good Feng Shui, since they indicate missing sectors and may affect the location of the center of the property, the Heavenly Heart.
Though these are some of the main external Feng Shui features you will want to look out for when house hunting, there are several additional factors that you can also look at, such as the soil colour of the land and the presence of a Bright Hall (open space) in front of the property. For even further accuracy, once a few homes have been shortlisted, one can choose to have a personal BaZi reading done to check further suitability.
In Feng Shui, what is outside matters more than what is inside, so once you’ve chosen your home, feel free to go with whatever interior decorating choices you have made. Since your home is where you’ll spend a lot of time relaxing and resting, go with what makes you comfortable. If you’ve familiarized yourself with the landforms and done some simple legwork in choosing a home with a good Feng Shui Quotient, you’ve already given yourself a leg up in life. Happy house hunting!
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